There is, however, reason to believe that there was a small nucleus of truth round which this great mass of fiction gathered, and that the wisdom and selfcommand which Somers never wanted in the senate, on the judgment seat, at the council board, or in the society of wits, scholars and philosophers, were not always proof against female attractions.

[478] Another director of the Whig party was Charles Montague.

He was often, when he had risen to power, honours and riches, called an upstart by those who envied his success.

That they should have called him so may seem strange; for few of the statesmen of his time could show such a pedigree as his.

He sprang from a family as old as the Conquest; he was in the succession to an earldom, and was, by the paternal side, cousin of three earls.